"Ocean Sands" by Lorena Lohr

Apr 27, 2016

Lorena is a young British-Canadian photographer currently living in England. Her cleverly composed images favour colour and form over subject matter, which creates beauteous images of daily life scenes that are very aesthetic and pleasant to watch, besides making us reflect over the stories behind the places visited by the artist. In this series, Lorena travels the Southwest American-Mexican border looking for constructed spaces and its transformations over time.

am - First of all thank you very much for your contribution to our project. Can you introduce yourself for us please?

LL - From England originally, half Canadian also. 25. I didn’t study, right now I’m taking photos. Living in England for the moment.

am - How did you start in photography?

LL - I started by getting a camera and recording what was around, and then I moved to America for work and I began to travel around on the Greyhound, train and on foot, mainly in the Southwest, the desert and the US-Mexico border towns. This is where the ongoing series Ocean Sands began, and it has been building up for about the last five or six years.

am - What inspires your work?

LL - It’s not possible to say really. An image forms from an experience as it’s taking place. But I could say one thing that I look at a lot is the painting of the Northern Renaissance, around the 1400s and 1500s, in which the subject matter isn’t typically pleasant but theres an harmonious organisation of forms, whether it be objects or anatomy, using line or color.

am - What is “Ocean Sands” about?

LL - Ocean Sands is an ongoing survey of places and surfaces. Its both a documentation of a journey through a place and also a look at how the other people passing through that place have left the interiors or external structures of the buildings and streets.

am - Who are your favourite photographers / artists?

LL - Henry Wessel, Chauncey Hare, Lucas Cranach.

am - How would you describe your visual language?

LL - I don’t think this needs to be described in words, leaving it up to the viewer if they want to.

am - If you could travel and stay in a place for one year, where would you choose to go?

LL - I would continue to travel further around America and stay in Arizona most likely.

am - What’s your favourite movie?

LL - Currently, The Long Goodbye.

am - What are you reading at the moment?

LL - The collected stories of Flannery O’Connor.

am - What’s your favourite season and why?

LL - Summer, for the light and heat and ease to stay outside.

am - Do you have any project in mind that could be a personal or professional challenge?

LL - Moving towards moving image. Otherwise, just to continue with the existing series is not without its challenges.

am - Thank you very much for your time and your contribution to analog magazine.